Julianna Barwick – Asthmatic Kitty Recordshttp://asthmatickitty.com
Fri, 09 Dec 2016 21:10:09 +0000en-UShourly1New Album from Julianna Barwick on Dead Oceanshttp://asthmatickitty.com/new-album-from-julianna-barwick-on-dead-oceans/
http://asthmatickitty.com/new-album-from-julianna-barwick-on-dead-oceans/#respondThu, 16 May 2013 21:12:01 +0000http://asthmatickitty.com/?p=7871Big changes are afoot for Asthmatic Kitty alumna Julianna Barwick, who is moving forward with the release of a new record on a new record label. Nepenthe, the follow-up to 2011’s highly acclaimed The Magic Place, will be released this summer on the prestigious independent label Dead Oceans, already home to such diverse artists as Frog Eyes, Califone, and Akron/Family.

Nepenthe marks a departure for Barwick in more ways than one. Like her concert performances, driven by live loops and effects, The Magic Place created complex, layered harmonies primarily using Barwick’s voice, with almost no instrumental accompaniment. A Brooklyn native raised in the South, Barwick named the album for a tree in the back pasture of the Louisiana farm where she grew up, and recorded it in her figurative backyard, at a Brooklyn rehearsal space.

With Nepenthe, the process was radically different. For her latest effort, named after a mythical potion for forgetting one’s sorrows, Barwick recorded in the dramatic landscape of Mosfellsbær, Iceland, at the Sundlaugin recording studios established by Sigur Rós.

Alex Somers, the band’s producer as well as half of the duo Jónsi & Alex with his partner, Sigur Rós singer Jón Þór Birgisson, produced and engineered the new disc, while other luminaries of the Icelandic scene contributed their performing talents. Performers from múm and the string quartet turned multi-instrumentalist ensemble Amiina contributed to the record, along with a whole choir of local young women.

Nepentheis scheduled for an August 2013 release, eagerly anticipated by critics and fans alike, as well as by her friends at Asthmatic Kitty Records.

OMBRE has released their first single, entitled “Cara Falsa,” and it brilliantly showcases the ambient and programmed electronic side of this record, with a synthy space jam of pure oscillating ascendance,

What else can we expect from Believe You Me? Its ten tracks are very much the sound of two solo artists, each bringing a distinctive style, vibe, and voice to the mix. Recorded as the newly acquainted pair were just becoming friends, OMBRE shows Barwick’s clear, high harmonies and church choir sensibilities meld well with Helado Negro’s rustic-Latin-psyche-folk meets big-city-blockparty.

We’re excited to bring it to you come August. Until then, enjoy “Cara Falsa” below.

We’re going back over our releases from last year and trying to pack a year’s worth of happenings into one post. Here are our thoughts on Julianna Barwick’s The Magic Place.

Before we get started, you should know that Julianna Barwick is touring Australia starting this Saturday. She’ll be at several festivals, including the Sugar Mountain Festival, Syndey Festival, and MONA FOMA. Full details are here, and you can read an interview about her and Australia here on Oyster Mag.

We signed Julianna back in March of 2010 after hearing her play live and listening to Florine, her superb 2009 EP. But we were really surprised when the final version of The Magic Place arrived at the offices. If Florine was a first taste of what Julianna was capable of producing, the new record was a fully realized work and nothing short of amazing.

Julianna's music builds in layers, evoking water, in its washes and waves. The Magic Place embodies a sense of hope. The song “Bob in Your Gait” contains grace, reverence, respect, patience—it sounds the way humans should treat one another. The title track is expectation, flowering into arrival. And the appropriately titled “Vow” sounds like a staggering, revelatory light.

We only release music that makes that kind of impression or that we otherwise consider the best of the best, which doesn’t always mean it's the most accessible. But in the last year, Julianna’s work has found a huge audience—from ardent independent music connoisseurs to, you know, normal people—and the album garnered a lot of fans quickly. Pitchfork included it on its Best New Music list. Reviewing the album for the site, Mark Richardson wrote, “The Magic Place is music for a specific constellation of feelings. They are real, many people share them, and this album owns them completely.”

The Magic Place also made it onto plenty of 2011 year-end lists. NPR mentioned the album on the air, during rush hour. Like we said, her music transcends boundaries.

Though it would have been perfectly acceptable to rest on her laurels, Julianna toured extensively last year (including a performance at Pitchfork’s SXSW showcase and Festival), and she collaborated with many other musicians. Most recently, she contributed to Sharon Van Etten’s new LP. In June, she performed an improvisation with composer and former DNA drummer Ikue Mori at New York’s White Columns gallery. The label Rvng Intl released a recording of the event as FRKWYS VOL. 6.

We released Julianna’s Matrimony Remixes in October, which features Diplo & Lunice, Helado Negro, Alias Pail, and Prince Rama. This year, Record label M’Lady’s will press a limited LP version of Julianna’s debut album Sanguine (preorder the deluxe reissue and hear samples here).

Julianna got a head start on 2012 by inaugurating Avant-Brunch, a new concert series in New York City. The editor of the Village Voice called the 1pm show “a nice way way to start the New Year and come down from a hangover.” (Read Capital’s piece on the event here.)

Last year, we gasped when we heard The Magic Place. It is one of the most beautiful pieces of music we’ve ever released. And now, we can’t wait to see what Julianna creates in 2012.

It’s been a few months since we released Julianna Barwick’s acclaimed The Magic Place, but it didn’t take long for Julianna to find some people to rethink the album. The Matrimony Remixes takes two tracks from The Magic Place and puts them into the hands of good friends.

Julianna crossed paths with Philadelphia-based Diplo while both working on remixes of Radiohead’s “Reckoner,” and he teams up with producer Lunice to provide some deep sea beats to “Vow.” Roberto Lange, Brooklyn neighbor to Barwick, and label-mate, takes “Vow” into the inner space of clouds. Long-time Barwick friend Bryan Doring of Alias Pail drumbreaks “Prizewinning.” And Brooklyn/Boston-based sisters of the cosmos Prince Rama close out the EP by escorting the same song into an aural Eden.

You can buy the EP on iTunes here, or via Bandcamp here. Listen below.

RVNG INTL. is releasing FRKWYS VOL. 6 on 12" vinyl in a few weeks, and it includes four pieces composed and performed by our own Julianna Barwick, and Ikue Mori of DNA as part of a month-long installation at White Columns gallery, New York, NY.

For the installation, a particle-board cubicle was custom constructed and placed at the center of the Project Space. The cubicle wall separated Julianna and Ikue to their respective seated work stations, while web cams captured the musicians at work / play. They became interactive projections manipulated by video artist Erik Mika, illuminating this exercise in simulated engagement.

You can see videos and hear music from the installation, or preorder the 12", here, or stream a cut below.

Today Julianna Barwick kicked off a short but sweet mini-tour across the West Coast. She opened tonight in San Francisco, and will be in Portland on Thursday, Seattle on Friday, and Vancouver on Saturday.

Pitchfork gave Julianna Barwick's recently released album, The Magic Place, it's prized Best New Music moniker. Esquirecalled her performance at SXSW "a religious experience" (no easy feat at SXSW!). You can watch NPR's "Tiny SXSW Concert" with Julianna above.

Details on the tour are here. You can buy and stream The Magic Placehere.

Last week, we released Julianna Barwick's The Magic Place. New York production magicmakers Alias Pail went straight to work and remixed "Prizewinning" with some drums and impressive stop-and-starts. Very nice stuff.

You can listen to the remix on Pitchfork (who gave it Best New Music last week) right here.

Barwick's new album, The Magic Place, comes out in late February. She will likely play songs from that album on this tour but we offer no guarantees save one: the show you attend will be well worth your time. In fact, you may find it quite amazing.

We are very pleased to announce Julianna Barwick's Asthmatic Kitty Records debut, The Magic Place. This nine-piece full-length album of magic and solace, bursting joy and healing tones is set to release on February 22, 2011.